


there are some nights I hold you close

by stereosymbiosis



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Community: trope_bingo, M/M, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-11
Updated: 2013-01-11
Packaged: 2017-11-25 02:45:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/634291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stereosymbiosis/pseuds/stereosymbiosis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Sleeping in the same bed was a lot easier when you were still smaller than me,” Dean says close to Sam’s ear, so close that Sam can feel his breath.</p>
            </blockquote>





	there are some nights I hold you close

**Author's Note:**

> Trope: Sharing a bed

“Aw, shit,” Dean says as he opens the door of their motel room. “There’s only one bed.”

Sam hands him his shoulder bag with a sigh, and Dean throws it on the bed. The room doesn’t even look that bad, compared to other places they’ve stayed at in the past. A little small, perhaps, with the king bed taking up most of the space, but all they were going to do was sleep, anyway. “I’ll go back to the desk and see if they have anything else.”

“Yeah, there is no way I’m sharing with Gigantor,” Dean mutters quietly after Sam leaves the room.

“I heard that, jerk,” he says, and Dean’s laughter fills the hallway. In all honesty, the last thing Sam wants to do is negotiate a room switch. He’s exhausted, pretty sure he’s bleeding somewhere under his shirt, and all he wants to do is wash the grime out from underneath his fingernails and crawl into bed, even if he has to share.

Sam walks up to the receptionist desk and coughs quietly into his hand when the woman behind the desk takes no notice of him. She looks up from her computer (and a game of online sudoku, as he can see from the reflection in her glasses) and blinks up at Sam. Hopefully she won’t notice more than a normal amount of dirt and grime on his clothes. “Yes? Can I help you?”

Sam smiles warmly at her, doing his best to look sheepish, and he can see her face soften just a little bit. “Yeah, uh, my brother and I are in room 12, which only has one bed. Is there any way that we can switch into a room with two beds?”

“Sorry, sweetheart,” she replies. “That was the last room we had available for today. There’s a wedding in town so we’re all full. You were lucky to even get that room, someone called to cancel their reservation at the last minute.” She even tilts her computer screen around for him to see that the entire block of rooms was full. “I could give you a cot,” she continues, but then eyes Sam up and down and says, “though I’m not sure you’ll fit on it. It’s pretty small.”

“No, it’s fine,” Sam says with his smile intact. “Thanks for your help.”

“You’re kidding,” Dean says when Sam enters the room and closes the door behind him. “Nothing else? Really?”

“It’s this or the back seat of the Impala,” Sam replies.

Dean heaves a big sigh and rolls his eyes. Sam’s really not sure what the big deal is. They haven’t shared a bed in years, sure, but at least they have a place to sleep.

“I’m gonna go clean myself up. Don’t touch my laptop,” Sam warns before closing the bathroom door behind him. He leans his forehead against the door and closes his eyes, feeling exhaustion sink into his bones. Somehow, he finds the energy to move himself under the spray of the shower. He’s not bleeding, just severely bruised, and nothing seems broken. He spends an extra minute or two just standing under the warm water, wishing it could wash away the exhaustion he felt in his body just as it washes away the mud caked onto his skin. Most of the time he can handle it -- constantly moving from city to city, from job to job, ganking one thing after another. But it’s all bound to catch up with him after a while, and now that the job’s over and he’s finally standing still, he can feel it hit him like a freight train.

Sam turns the water off, wraps a towel around his hips, and perfunctorily brushes his teeth. When he opens the bathroom door, Dean slides past him before Sam has even left the doorway. He hears the door click closed behind him, and the shower turns back on. Dean’s humming, and Sam can hear it through the door, even over the sound of the water. Sam can’t help but smile at that.

By the time Dean gets out of the shower, Sam is already in bed and almost asleep. He opens one eye when he feels a dip in the mattress. After Dean shuffles under the blanket, Sam reaches over to the nightstand to turn the lamp off.

“Sleeping in the same bed was a lot easier when you were still smaller than me,” Dean says close to Sam’s ear, so close that Sam can feel his breath.

“Ugh, shut up,” Sam laughs, kicking his legs back to push Dean away. Dean only kicks back, harder. Sam tiredly throws his arm behind him to push his brother away again. “Dean, I’m fucking tired. Just go to sleep, man.”

When Sam wakes the next morning, he’s momentarily taken aback by the warmth behind him, until he remembers it’s just his brother. They’re not exactly touching, but Dean gives off heat like a furnace, and it’s not unpleasant. The only place they’re touching is where Dean’s knuckles rest against Sam’s bare back, a tiny point of pressure. Sam thinks he could get used to this, to waking up pleasantly surprised by another presence beside him. Even if it happens every day, he can’t see himself getting tired of...whatever this feeling is.

He doesn’t want to move, he doesn’t want to leave the warm bed, and he doesn’t want to leave his Dean’s side. After a minute he realizes that he’s holding his breath, and he exhales sharply. Dean’s knuckles brush lightly against his back as Sam breathes in, and he wishes he could hold this moment in time. He stays still, and pretends to be asleep until Dean wakes up and moves away.

They leave. They drive for hours, until something else turns up. They gank a ghost, and save the day, and drive away before anyone around can get a good look at their faces. Sam falls asleep in the car, and only wakes once Dean shakes him awake in another motel parking lot. They walk to their room, and when they open the door and see the king bed, neither of them say anything. When the lights are out and they climb into bed, Dean rests a warm hand on Sam’s waist. Sam smiles into his pillow before he drifts into sleep. When he wakes, Dean’s hand still on his bare skin, he somehow feels less exhausted than he has in months.


End file.
